Israel’s Destiny :: By Terry James

Author’s note: The article presented here was written some years ago. It was at that time and continues to be meant to inform the Jewish people of their God-ordained destiny. Because God’s Word is absolutely true, the matters involving His chosen nation have not been proven to have fallen by the wayside of history. God’s Word on the Jewish people has only increased in veracity. That is, each and every passing day, God’s Word about Israel issues forth ever stronger Proof that God’s promises to that people—and to all believers in Jesus Christ—will come to pass. All that’s going on at present, with the building worldwide hatred and satanically driven genocidal ranting by even deluded American university students, gives validation that Jesus Christ is on the very brink of calling believers to Himself as He promised:

“And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

Israel’s Destiny

Israel is the one nation in human history that the Creator of all things chose to be “a people unto himself”:

“For thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that [are] upon the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6).

Jehovah made promises to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that are staggering in their implications. He promised to bless those who bless the nation that would spring from the loins of these men, and warned about His curse for those who cursed those people. God said to Abraham:

“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).

Certainly, this promise can easily be verified as coming true throughout recorded history. The modern record, as a matter of fact, is contemporary proof of the veracity of the Almighty and His prophetic promises. Historians–except those blinded by the great deceiver, Lucifer—concede, sometimes reluctantly, that Israel’s history in ancient times was a record of greatness. David’s and Solomon’s exploits and accomplishments are legendary but built upon archaeological facts. Israel has achieved greatness among the nations of this earthly sphere.

One point over which secular historians, at the minimum, raise eyebrows of skepticism is that man received laws and moral codes through Moses, the son of Abraham. Most give Hammurabi’s Code that honor. But those who believe that God is who He is know that the great human deliverer of the chosen people came down from Sinai with rules for living life, given by the God of Heaven to His creation. Particularly, the Ten Commandments were meant for Israel to follow as fealty to their God, and as example to the rest of the world.

God’s promise to make Israel a great nation and to bless all other nations through His chosen people has come true. The United States, for example, has the Ten Commandments upon its walls within government buildings–including the Supreme Court. America, despite the anti-God forces who want to destroy the nation’s moral underpinnings—continues to lead the world in most areas of improvement of the human condition. This is due to the Ten Commandments’ influence upon American ethics and achievement. But, it goes profoundly deeper.

Much of America’s successes in technological, medical, and every other category of progress has been contributed by members of the Jewish race. We don’t have to look far to find them. I’ll just mention the most obvious: Albert Einstein, the German-born genius-physicist who became an American citizen. No more than a cursory study will show, indelibly, that God’s Word is true, when He followed through on the promise to make the people of the book the head of all peoples:

“And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them]” (Deuteronomy 28:13).

Then what about the maltreatment, the genocide, against the Jewish race down through the millennia, particularly during the twentieth century? This doesn’t appear to be God making Israel the head of all nations. Here is where God placed some conditions upon the people He chose as destined to become the head of all others. Note the last of the above promise:

“…if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them].”

God will make Israel the head of all nations if they will listen to His instructions and commandments. Not only is that where the nation has strayed, but it is where those who say that God is through with Israel–that the Jewish race is no longer God’s chosen—have also strayed. God’s Word says ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have strayed–both Jews AND Gentiles.

Israel’s detractors within Christianity say the Jews rejected their Messiah in His first visitation. Therefore, they say, Jehovah has written off the Jews and the nation Israel. The Israel in the land surrounding Jerusalem since May 14, 1948, is not the Israel of the promises, the detractors say; modern Israel is but an imposter, and God considers it no more within His prophecy for future national or racial greatness than He considers any of modern Israel’s blood-vowed enemies.

Absolutely nothing could be farther from the truth. It is true that Israel of Jesus Christ’s day rejected Him as Messiah. It is equally true that those of His own race, the Jews, cried, “Crucify him!”—which convinced the Romans to crucify Jesus. But God’s Word says every person is a sinner. We are born into sin–because Adam, the physical father of humankind, disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Again, God’s Word says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

The Jews, as a race, are no guiltier than my race, which is Gentile. We all, as the human race, put Jesus Christ to death on the cruel Roman cross. He came to earth, sent by His Father, the God of Heaven, to offer Himself as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus the Christ–the Jews’ Messiah—came to fulfill all Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments. In Christ, we can now believe, and our sins are cleansed, washed away by Christ’s sacrifice for eternity. Through His shed blood, we ALL–Jew and Gentile–are in the family of God forever.

But, each individual must accept this grace gift that replaced the sacrificial system of blood from innocent lambs of the physical sort. We must accept Christ as Savior, as Lord one-on-one with God, because He gives each person the free will to accept or reject His grace offer of salvation.

Now, I must come to the sad part—the tragic part of this essay, really—in which I address this nation’s prophetic destiny.

God’s Word, the Bible, foretells that the Jewish race as a whole, Israel as a nation, will continue to reject their Messiah, the one who came to them more than two thousand years ago. This rejection will continue to result in God’s promises being delayed until the moment Jesus returns to put an end to humankind’s final war called Armageddon.

Israel was scattered after the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple atop Mount Moriah. This was exactly what Jesus predicted in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew, chapter 24; Mark, chapter 13; and Luke, chapter 21). Jesus prophesied that not one stone of the Temple would be left upon another. Titus and the Roman legions saw to the fulfillment of this prophecy.

The Jews lost their temple, their city, and, following Hadrian’s purge in AD 135, their geographical homeland area, plus their common language (Hebrew), as a cohesive link to one another as a distinct people. Yet God’s Word foretells that Israel will be a nation again at the end of days–the time just before Christ returns.

Again, tragically and sadly, you are back in the land for a time that will be worse than any ever experienced by any people. The prophet Jeremiah foretold this:

“Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7).

It will be a time of horrors beyond anything even Adolf Hitler dreamed about perpetrating upon the Jewish race.

Can we see a build-up toward that time? Let us consider the words of the prophet Zechariah, and put his prophecies as a template over today’s headlines:

“The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12:1-3).

The peoples of the earth are gathering against Israel. Even some leaders within the US, governmental and religious, want Israel to give away land for peace. The “Zionists” are seen as the problem.

Israel is basically isolated today, so far as true allies are concerned. The United States stands almost alone as your friend. However, it hurts to say that support is eroding, while some within recent American diplomatic efforts seem to want to exclude your nation from talks involving the small territory you now occupy—territory, incidentally, that is but a fraction of the land the Lord your God granted you through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These negotiators join the so-called international community in wanting to placate Israel’s hate-filled enemies.

This Neville Chamberlain-like “peace at any cost” maneuvering is not lost on those who want Israel wiped off the map. It is creating a perception of weakness that will tempt them to act on their satanically driven hatreds.

Ezekiel foretold of a time at the end of days when a northern coalition will invade from the North (all biblical direction is given from Jerusalem). There is not space here to go into detail, but excellent scholarship has determined the chief attacker will be Russia, joined by many surrounding peoples. This attack will include forces from the area of ancient Persia, which encompasses all of Iran, and considerable surrounding geographical areas. This coalition, I am convinced today’s news headlines indicate, is gathering now. This will be the Gog-Magog assault described prophetically in Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39.

The one bright prospect, and it is a bright spot, indeed, is that the God of Israel will never let Israel be destroyed; we have His Word on that:

“This is what the Lord says, ‘He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My sight,’ declares the Lord, ‘will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me’” (Jeremiah 31:35-36).

The bottom line is that Israel, the Jewish race, is again destined to become hated and persecuted—this time with satanic vitriol that will make Hitler’s Holocaust look somewhat less terrible by comparison.

Antichrist, the long-foretold, sometimes spoofed, but 100 percent Bible-prophecy guaranteed-to-come-on-the-world-scene tyrant, will implement genocidal policies against the Jewish race that will go far beyond draconian.

I didn’t make up this prediction. God’s Word, the Bible, does say it. I accept that Word as the only truth there is. I, and other Christians who know Jesus Christ as Lord, love, or should love, the Jewish people–the nation Israel. God loves you; so must we. You are His chosen. However, I, and they, can’t change what God has prophesied to take place, I’m convinced, in the relatively near future.

But, I, and they, are charged with showing individuals within Israel the way to escape the coming time of Antichrist’s regime of horror. Accept Christ now. He is Messiah. And one day, perhaps very soon, He will call His people—Jews and Gentiles who accept Him as Savior—to be with Him forever. This will be the Rapture. (That stunning event in which millions of people will vanish from planet Earth can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51–55. Jesus spoke of it in John 14:1–3.)

The Rapture will take place before that time of horror–the era Jesus called “great Tribulation” (Matthew 24: 21).

The people of the nation Israel who are unrepentant (the remnant, for most will die in this last holocaust) will accept Christ at the last moment.

Here’s what that future remnant’s Messiah says:

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zechariah 12:9-10).

Israel will then be made the head of all nations, with the resurrected King David ruling as co-regent with the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, atop Mount Zion at Jerusalem for one thousand years–the Millennium! Believe it or not, that is your nation’s great God-promised destiny.

We who love Israel pray that you will believe.

The post Israel’s Destiny :: By Terry James appeared first on Rapture Ready.